MO- Please help us protect kids in Kansas City

We belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some of us were sexually violated by clergy. Others are friends, relatives and supporters.

WHY WE’RE HERE

We want KC’s Catholic bishop to warn parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public – in KC, Nevada and Pennsylvania – about two credibly accused predator priests.

The two were involved in the 30 just-settled clergy sex abuse lawsuits. We believe that these two priests were sent out of state after child sex abuse reports were made against them. We’re worried because they now live among unsuspecting neighbors and could be molesting more children.

They are Fr. Mark Honhart and Fr. Thomas Cronin. (Learn more about them at BishopAccountability.org)

Fr. Honhart was ordained in the Kansas City diocese in 1980 and worked here until 2002 when he was transferred to New Mexico and then to Pennsylvania. Three civil lawsuits have been filed against Fr. Honhart. All three allegations involve Kansas City youngsters.

Fr. Cronin was ordained in the Kansas City diocese in 1969 and was sent to Nevada in 1997. Fr. Cronin is accused of repeatedly raping a teenage girl. After the victim filled a civil suit, Fr. Cronin was found to be working at a Catholic church in Fernley Nevada and trying to start a homeless and battered women’s shelter.

He was suspended from his Nevada parish only after SNAP publicly accused both the bishops of Reno and Kansas City of “recklessness” for keeping Fr. Cronin on the job even after the suit was filed.

We want Bishop Finn to use church bulletins, diocesan websites and pulpit announcements to beg others who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or other misdeeds by the two priests to call law enforcement. And we want him to call his colleagues in Nevada and Pennsylvania and beg them to take similar steps to protect children.

Barbara Blaine, founder of SNAP, passed away on Sunday, September 24th, 2017. Her dying was sudden and completely unexpected. Words cannot express our sorrow nor are there words to express our gratitude for her relentless advocacy. She truly was a hero. There is an old saying, “well behaved women seldom make history”. Barbara made history and the world is a better place.

Join SNAP Today

50 State AG Call for Grand Jury

Write a letter to the attorney general of your state. Demand, request, and beg them to impanel a grand jury.

Any investigation must be:

independent of and separate from the church

must have subpoena powers and ability to compel testimony under oath

Anything short of these criteria is a sham and whitewash.

In addition, write letters to the editor, make phone calls to politicians as they can apply pressure to keep them responsive to our demand. We need to make efforts to ensure that they follow up on what the state is doing to investigate these crimes.

The Attorneys General of forty states have inquired about the grand jury process in Pennsylvania. Let's get statewide investigations going in fifty states.

Note to Letter Writers

Use your own words and style of writing. Cut and paste from the templates as you wish. Include your experiences, whether as a survivor or as a member of the community. And relate your letter to the state you were abused in or state now living in.